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Spring Garden School No. 2

Architect
Irwin T. Catharine
Year
1931
Style
Art Deco
City
Philadelphia, PA
Collection
philly deco
Spring Garden School No. 2
Photo: Smallbones, Public domain
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Spring Garden School No. 2 is a public K-8 school in the Poplar section of North Philadelphia, designed by Irwin T. Catharine and built in 1930-1931 for the School District of Philadelphia. The three-story, 16-bay orange brick building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

the building

Corbelled brick pilasters. The Art Deco facade is organized by corbelled brick pilasters topped with capitals carved with floral motifs, a decorative program unusual for a public school of its era, along with a caged rooftop play area.

the style

Catharine designed the school in the Art Deco style then favored for civic buildings, expressing it here through brick rather than the stone or terracotta common on downtown Art Deco towers, with geometric pilaster capitals standing in for the style's usual ornament.

More on Art Deco

the architect

Irwin T. Catharine served as an architect for the School District of Philadelphia, designing Spring Garden School No. 2 in 1930-1931 as one of the district's Art Deco school buildings.

significance

Spring Garden School No. 2 was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The school it now houses sends over 70 percent of its graduating students on to special-admission and magnet schools such as Bodine, Carver, Constitution, and Philadelphia High School for Girls.

nearby

All 127 buildings in Philadelphia